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Last Black Friday, office supply chain Staples slept in, relatively speaking. They didn’t open up until 5 A.M. on Black Friday. No snoozing and losing out on those early shoppers in 2013: this year, mysterious folks in red shirts have told us that Staples stores are opening up at 9 P.M. on Thanksgiving Day. Disrupting family-based holidays: that was easy.

Well, we have our own red-shirted tipsters, one of whom wrote to us:

Staples will be open on Black Thursday… er… Thanksgiving night also. So far the plan seems to be 9pm – 1am. This may change and may vary in different parts of the country, but the last email I saw from corporate said we’ll have two different ads (one for Thursday night, one for Friday morning).

The employee who set up the petition, who claims to love his or her job otherwise, writes in the introduction:

This is concerning, but even more so because Staples (like most companies in this economy) have tightened their belt and are running their stores with significantly less staff. Just recently they let go upwards of 50 plus people in their corporate office, and most stores lost almost all Assistant Management team members. The concern is that those same employees that will be asked to come in at 9pm on Thanksgiving will more than likely be pressured to return to open at 6am black Friday. And it does not appear Staples is ramping up seasonal hiring at ALL, at least at our location.

Signatories also shared their opinions on the prospect of Staples opening up at 9:

My brother works for Staples & I know he cherishes his time with his family on Thanksgiving & Christmas. My family will never shop on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Please keep Staples closed on Thanksgiving.

It’s simply outrageous what Staples is doing. Avoid shopping on Thanksgiving? I’m going to stop shopping there altogether, and take my business to Office Depot and other competitors. This is simply unconscionable!

We have a call in to Staples to confirm their opening time on…Black Thursday? Brown Thursday? What should we call this new holiday that was already a holiday to begin with?

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